Bound to Get Together
by Miss Selarne
Summary: [Check, Please! webcomic] [Oneshot] Jack/Bitty. Jack and Bitty have Skyped Every Night Since May. How did the habit start? Having to navigate a new relationship over Skype isn't the easiest. But they need to establish what they are to each other and where they go after Jack's manic dash across campus to kiss Bitty.
**A/N:** And catching up on the other Check, Please! fic I've written more recently.

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 _'I want to see you. Can we Skype?'_ Bitty couldn't hold back the blush when that one came in, thankful that he had told his mama he wanted some time to unpack and relax alone in his room.

 _'sure! how about at 9?'_ That would give him enough time to be with his parents and then hopefully they'd go to their bedroom so they wouldn't overhear him. Bitty felt a little guilty that he had to hide this from them, but he knows his mama would be curious if she heard him talking to someone in his room.

 _'Sounds good. :-)'_

 _'I'm leaving my phone in my room so you can't make me blush in front of my parents [blush emoji] talk to you later tonight!'_ Bitty smiled at his phone, then set it to charge on his bed so he wouldn't be tempted to check it every minute. He went to join his mama downstairs in the kitchen.

When he returned to his room later, just before nine, he jumped on his bed and grabbed his phone when he noticed it flashing to indicate he'd received a message.

 _'I can't wait to see you'_

 _'Sorry if I made you blush again'_

 _'But you're cute when you blush so it's okay.'_

 _'Do you mind being called cute? You're also very handsome.'_

God, Bitty just wanted to scream in delight. He didn't know how he kept it together in front of his parents. _'you are too much mr zimmermann'_

He pulled his laptop out of his backpack and leaned back against the headboard while booting it up and opening Skype.

His phone buzzed. _'My parents just left for the hotel. I'll be on soon.'_

Bitty put his face in his hands and took a deep breath. He would not let Jack Zimmermann make him speechless this time. They'd been flirting all day, though, what should he even say? Should he say something about...a relationship? The flirting was nice (and the kiss was even nicer) but he didn't know where they really stood in terms of anything.

His computer started ringing, pulling Bitty out of his thoughts. He ran a hand over his head to make sure his hair was fine and straightened out his shirt before answering with video.

"Hi, Bitty." Jack's voice came through the speakers. Bitty smiled at his laptop. Jack had forgotten to turn on the video.

"Hi, Jack. Could you turn your video on?

"Oh, uh, right. Sorry." Bitty could hear some shuffling before Jack's video appeared. He still had his button-up shirt on from graduation, but no tie and the top button was undone. He waved at the camera. "Can you see me?"

"Yeah. Hey." Bitty kind of just wanted to look at Jack forever. Jack who liked him and ran across Samwell and _kissed_ him. Jack wasn't saying anything either, Bitty could see his eyes roaming across his laptop screen. Bitty blushed, realizing Jack was just _looking_ at him. He needed to say something, but didn't want to jump right into anything serious, so he fell back on small talk. "So...how's your apartment? And Providence?"

"...It's good. My, uh, mother says we need to go shopping for a few more things tomorrow."

"So your parents are sticking around for a few days?"

"Just until Friday, then I'm going back to Montreal with them." God, this was so awkward, small talk was a bad idea. Bitty wanted to go back to the flirting or maybe actually talking about...whatever this was.

"I-"

"Bits-"

They both tried to talk at once and cut themselves off. Bitty smiled, then laughed. A low chuckle came from Jack. "You go," Jack said.

"Ok, so...we should probably talk about...things. I…" Bitty looked away so he wouldn't have to see Jack's reaction. "I was really happy when you kissed me. And...I want to kiss you again." There was no response. "Jack, do you...?" Bitty looked back at his laptop to see Jack smiling softly, arm extended along the bottom of the screen. To touch his face on the laptop, Bitty realized.

"If you weren't so far away, I'd kiss you again right now."

Bitty felt his whole face heat up. "Jack, I can't-you can't-" Bitty stuttered over his words. Flirting over text was much different than actually hearing the words come out of Jack's mouth. "...Would you really?" There was still some part of Bitty that was convinced this was all a dream and he needed the actual confirmation from Jack that this wasn't.

"Bitty." Jack's face shifted from soft fondness to something a little more serious. "I'm...sorry it took me so long. If I had noticed sooner, we could talk in person and I could…" He trailed off.

"No, that's okay, Jack!" Bitty hastened to reassure him. "I-I knew I liked you and was too scared to say anything at all so I'm just forever thankful you did. And, I mean, talking to you now about this is way better than never really getting the chance, right? Better late than never?" A small smile reappeared in Jack's face as he nodded. "So...um…"

"Maybe...I could come visit you? I don't have to train all summer. And then we could-I could see you in person."

"Oh, that sounds good! I'd have to ask my mama when a good time would be, but I'm sure she'd love if you could visit!" The mention of Jack's training reminded Bitty of the other thing they should probably talk about, the thing that Bitty really didn't want to bring up. He reached one hand to the side of his bed where Señor Bunny was sitting just out of frame and held on to his paw for courage. "But you know...I'm not out to my parents, so I couldn't introduce you as...whatever."

"Right." Jack's hand moved to run through his hair. "And I'm not...Bitty, you know I can't…" He sighed. "I want to...try having a relationship. With you. But we couldn't tell…"

"Oh, honey," the pet name slipped into Bitty's speech without any thought. "I get it. I do. The NHL isn't Samwell."

"We couldn't tell anyone from Samwell either. I trust them but...accidents happen and I can't...I can't have…"

Bitty could tell Jack was starting to panic just thinking about what might happen. "I-Jack, if we wanted to do this, I won't tell anyone. I promise."

"Would you be okay with that? I know...Shitty said you were really happy when you came out to all of us and you could just be you. Are you okay with kind of...going back into the closet?"

Bitty wasn't sure how to answer that. On the one hand, he didn't want to hide it. He didn't think he could hide how happy he was. But he couldn't have the happiness unless he did keep quiet. Not that it would have to be forever. Maybe not while Jack was still in the NHL, but in the future, they could say something.

And then he realized he was thinking about a relationship lasting longer than Jack's NHL career and he knew the question was a no-brainer.

"I don't want to hide, but I'd do it for you. I didn't think you'd ever like me back and now that you do, I want to be with you, even if that means keeping it a secret."

"Thanks. I mean it, thank you. I know...being with me is going to be a lot-"

Bitty cut him off, knowing he was probably going to say something self-deprecating. "Jack, don't borrow trouble from tomorrow. We've got all summer before we have to worry about any of that." Bitty wagged his finger at the camera. "I just want to talk with you."

Jack shook his head, but smiled. "Okay, Bittle. How was your flight home? I know you said it was delayed."

"Oh lord, Jack, there was this nosy old woman sitting next to me who kept trying to see your texts as we were waiting at the gate..."

Bitty told his story and they talked and laughed and kept smiling at each other, as if neither could believe how the day had gone. Jack finally yawned around 12:30.

"Oh! Sweetie, you should go to bed. I made you run across campus twice and you had to move your things in, I'm sure you're tired."

"It's okay. I want to keep talking to you. I like this."

Bitty grinned. "Well maybe we can do this again tomorrow night. At nine?"

Jack yawned again and nodded. "Okay. I can't wait. Tomorrow I won't get sleepy on you." He smiled and moved his arm along the bottom of Bitty's screen, touching Bitty's face on his own screen as he had multiple times during the call. "Good night, Bits."

"Good night, Jack." They sat for a bit, just smiling at each other, neither moving to end the call.

Finally, Jack moved. "Bye, Bitty." Bitty gathered his courage and blew a kiss at the camera as Jack hung up. His phone buzzed soon after.

 _'I can't wait to give you a real kiss when I visit.'_

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 **A/N:** Every. Night. Since. May. I wanted to know what their first conversation was because it had to set the tone for the whole summer. A little dialogue-heavy and I'm still learning the characters, so any feedback is welcome.

I really love imagining Bitty and Jack dancing to "Shut Up and Dance", hence the title.


End file.
